Beasts lurk outside Caracas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Beasts lurk outside Caracas
Original title The Lost Continent
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Michael Carreras
script Michael Nash ( di Michael Carreras )
production Michael Carreras
music Gerard Schurmann
camera Paul Beeson
cut James Needs
occupation

Beasts lurk in front of Caracas (original title The Lost Continent ) is a British adventure and fantasy film with elements of the horror film from 1968. Hildegard Knef had the main female role . The production is based on the novel Uncharted Seas (English for "Unknown Seas") by British writer Dennis Wheatley from 1938. The title song The Lost Continent was recorded by the British group The Peddlers . The German version is cut by a good 20 minutes, the reasons are unknown. The film opened in German cinemas on August 2, 1968.

action

Captain Lansen is about to leave a West African port with his motor ship Corita when he is asked to stop by a customs boat . But Lansen ignores the instructions and leaves the harbor, although his first officer Hemmings draws his attention to the criminality of his act.

Hemmings learns from Lansen that the Corita is on its last voyage before it is to be scrapped. Lansen was only able to acquire the cargo ship , which was ready for scrap , because it is no longer insurable . Unbeknownst to the crew, there is a contraband cargo of phosphorus on board , which explodes at the slightest contact with water. The destination is Caracas . Caracas is also the destination of dubious passengers, including Eva Peters, a native of Hamburg who carries considerable amounts of securities with her, and the doctor Dr. Webster, who appears to be wanted for illegal abortions and is accompanied by his rebellious daughter, Unity.

When the dangerous cargo is accidentally discovered by crew members, in the face of an approaching hurricane , they demand to be returned to the port, as the phosphorus could explode due to falling water. Hemmings leads the rebellious crew, but the passengers all refuse to return to Africa.

Then mutiny some crew members and leave with a lifeboat the ship. When a generator breaks down, which is supposed to pump out penetrating water, the rest of the crew and the passengers leave the Corita . There is an argument in the boat in which Dr. Webster goes overboard and is killed by a shark . A crew member who tries to stab Lansen is shot with a flare gun .

Eventually their boat drifts in the fog into a calm body of water in which there are unknown, dangerous creepers that injure Lansen. In the dark, the boat hits a hull that turns out to be the Corita , on which there is still the bartender Pat, who welcomes the lost people. As it turns out, the Corita is driven into a kind of Sargasso Sea . The seetangähnlichen plants wrap around the propeller so that the freighter with the flow continues into the plant sea is driven until it is fixed.

During the night, a giant octopus attacks the ship, killing a passenger. The next day a young woman appears dressed in 17th century fashion and introduces herself as Sara. She uses a carrying frame with balloons and huge shoes that allow her to walk on the seaweed. It warns the Corita crew of an imminent attack. Lansen hands out firearms and they repel an attack by obvious Spaniards dressed in 16th century fashion.

Both the Spaniards and Sara's apparently English ancestors are castaways who were stranded in the seaweed centuries ago. The Spaniards reside on an old galleon , under which a monster lives, which unpleasant opponents are thrown to eat through an opening in the ship's hull. The Spaniards are led apparently by an arrogant young man, El Supremo called, but actually practice the power, even over El Supremo , Catholic priests from that nor the Inquisition to attach. After a few adventurous encounters with other monsters, the Spaniards and the Corita crew and their passengers showdown . Captain Lansen uses the phosphorus barrels as bombs so that the galleon can be destroyed. El Supremo realizes at the last moment that he has been deceived by the priests, but is killed by them.

El Supremo receives a seaman's grave from the Corita people . The explosions of the phosphorus barrels set the seaweed in motion and with it the corita . Whether she can leave the “lost continent” remains to be seen.

Reviews

"In spite of the descriptions of the past life of the passengers and the captain, who is leaving in a junk-old boat for the last profitable trip, some of which fall into a cheap colportage style , the strip is quite captivating in places."

- Hahn / Jahnsen : Lexicon of science fiction films

“It's a shame that this film was made so much in the style of the B-movies and played up cheap action; it sometimes has a great atmosphere that could have been made more of. "

- SCIENCE FICTION TIMES

"A scrap-ripe freighter with a handful of failed existences and highly explosive explosives on board ends up in unknown sea banks after a hurricane, whose algae" turn out to be man-eating worms. Confused horror adventure from the hammer workshop. ""

- Lexicon of international film

Trivia

  • Caracas is not a port city. The port of Caracas is La Guaira, 20 km away .

publication

  • A German DVD edition has been available since 2004 , which also contains the scenes cut in the German version in the original with subtitles.

literature

  • Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to 1983 , Munich (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag) 1983, p. 57f. ISBN 3-453-01901-6

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ quoted from Hahn / Jansen
  2. ↑ Beasts lurk in front of Caracas. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used